2 killed, 5 injured in Assam serial blasts

New Delhi: Two people were killed and five injured in six bomb blasts that rocked Assam on Thursday, the latest in a wave of bombings and shootouts that have killed 86 people in the past three weeks, officials said.

Police said that a powerful explosion took place near a bus station in Rangiya town, about 70 km west from here.

"One person was killed and five wounded two of them critically, in the blast," police official A Das said by telephone.

HANDS UP: The police in Assam have been put to alert after a wave of bombings and shootouts.

The bomb is believed to have been concealed in a sack and kept by the side of a shop near the bus terminus.

There were two more explosions, one in Ganeshgudi in Guwahati city and another in the eastern Tinsukia district.

"The explosion in Guwahati took place just outside the Indian Airlines main office although no one was injured as the area was deserted," said police official Rajen Singh.

In Tinsukia district, a separatist bomber suspected to be from the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) was killed when the explosive he was carrying went off near Barhapjan village, about 520 km east of Guwahati.

"The ULFA militant on a bicycle was blown up when a bomb he was carrying on a bag went off. We suspect he was taking the bomb to plant it in some crowded area," Tinsukia district magistrate Absar Hazarika said.

Police in eastern Assam's Lakhimpur district averted a major disaster by recovering an IED planted in a busy marketplace planted near a road bridge on Thursday. The explosive device was timed to go off on Republic Day.

The ULFA, fighting for an independent homeland since 1979, is blamed for a string of bombings in Assam in the past one week killing 13 people and wounding 67 others.

The bombings were preceded by the slaughter January 5 and 8 in eastern Assam by separatist guerrillas of 73 people, 61 of them being Hindi-speaking migrants.

In a related development, six ULFA militants were arrested in separate raids during the past 24-hours, an army commander said.

The ULFA has urged people in the state to boycott the Republic day celebrations on Friday.